Arrow rests are well known in the art. An arrow rest provides support to the arrow while the bow is being carried, drawn, released, and during the initial flight of an arrow until it departs the bow. In order for a rest to be effective it must offer enough support to the arrow to enable the bow to be carried and drawn safely without the arrow falling from the rest. The rest must impart minimal friction to the arrow to prevent parasitic kinetic energy losses. An arrow rest must be durable enough to withstand thousands of shots and rough handling without changing the point of impact. Ideally, the arrow rest should have minimal contact with the fletching (feathers) on the arrow. Fletchings are an integral part of accurate arrow flight, and any contact to the fletchings can disrupt the arrow's flight, and rest induced damage to the fletchings can degrade the accuracy of the affected arrow.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,855 (Troncoso) discloses an archery rest that consists of two prongs that form a “U” shaped trough that is biased against the arrow by a spring. The arrow rests on the points of the two prongs. The arrow rest is sufficiently rigid and durable, imparts little friction to the arrow, and has minimal fletching contact, but does very little to prevent the arrow from falling off of the rest. With this style rest it is difficult for archers, especially beginners, to draw the bow without the arrow falling off of the rest.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,978,775 (Graf) discloses an arrow rest that consists of a plurality of radially disposed, inwardly projecting brush bristles. This style rest provides very good containment, but has a large amount of frictional losses and fletching contact. Additionally, the brush material is consumed during the shooting process, requiring frequent replacement of the brush material.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,994,080 (Yoder) discloses a similar variant of arrow rest to the Graf patent with the exception of rather than having a semi-continuous ring of inwardly projected, radially disposed bristles, there are three spaced apart arrow supports mounted to a ring at about 120 degree intervals. These supports consist of a support shoe and a plurality of bristles that extend inwardly from the support shoe for supporting the arrow. The support shoe and brush bristles are located at 60, 180 and 300 degrees as the rest mounted on the bow with the arrow located in the center of the ring. The arrow is loaded into the rest by placing the arrow in the slot in the top of the ring and pushing the arrow down between the brushes. This style rest decreases the frictional losses and fletching wear associated with the Graf patent, but still suffers from significant brush wear and difficulty loading of the arrow into the rest. Additionally, it is possible for the arrow to fall down between the lower brushes, or be expelled upward between the two upper brushes, completely out of the arrow rest.